New rules would speed up land zoning changes

In an effort to encourage large-scale development and invest-ment, the amount of time required for the acquisition of land has been cut by the Cabinet-level Council for Economic Planning and Development (CEPD, 經建會).

The council yesterday passed draft language that covers land zoning changes. The draft simplifies administrative procedures and clarifies the role of central and local governments.

As a result, the amount of time needed for changing land zoning in non-urban areas is expected to be just four to eight months, down from as much as eight years in extreme cases.

"Difficulty in land acquisition is one of the most serious problems affecting economic activities in Taiwan, and this draft will improve efficiency significantly," said Schive Chi (薛琦), vice chairman of the council.

Schive said the new mechanism is expected to take effect in early July.

According to the Council, "important and large-scale investments" will be the first projects to benefit.

In some cases, this means projects that are built on Taiwan's islands. In addition, the project must require at least two hectares of land or cost at least NT$300 million.

In other cases, it could be a new health institution worth at least NT$500 million.

High technology investments that exceed NT$500 million in value, non high-technology projects that exceed NT$2 billion in value, and build-operate-transfer projects that cost at least NT$2 billion also qualify for the speedier zoning changes.

"The simplified procedure for changing land usage is geared to encourage private investment," said Hsia Cheng-Chung (夏正鐘), director for Urban and Housing Development Department.

To speed up the zoning change process, counties and county-level cities have been given the authority to change land-use zoning in certain cases, Hsia said.

Presently, the local governments only prepare documents and review part of a project's overall development plan, while it is the Ministry of the Interior (內政部) that actually makes the final decision to change a property's zoning.

After the ministry approves the proposal, the counties and county-level cities then meet several times again to make sure the overall development plan is suitable for their areas -- adding more time to the process.